by Soo-hyang Choi and Ju-min Park
SEOUL, Nov 9 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday he and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin shared “deep” concerns over growing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia.
The two leaders also said they discussed the possibility of working together to implement an extended deterrence strategy to counter threats from North Korea and to strengthen strategic cooperation with Japan.
“Our three countries have already taken steps to improve their joint response by sharing real-time missile warning data from the DPRK, holding trilateral defense exercises and working to counter the DPRK’s malicious cyber activities. DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, editor’s note).”
The United States, South Korea and Japan have denounced the scale of the flow of arms and military equipment from Pyongyang to Russia, saying the movement of goods from one to the other constitutes evidence.
North Korea and Russia have denied any arms deal, although their leaders pledged to strengthen military cooperation when they met in September.
South Korea’s military said it was on alert Monday after North Korea proclaimed Nov. 18 “missile industry day” to commemorate the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile last year. .
Antony Blinken’s visit to South Korea, which began Wednesday, is the first by a U.S. secretary of state in two and a half years and is part of a broader trip to Asia that will include a stop in India. He went to the Middle East before Japan. (Reporting Jack Kim and Soo-hyang Choi, French version Kate Entringer)
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